“To institute an action during the pendency of another one claiming the same reliefs amounts to an abuse of court process and it does not matter whether the matter is an appeal or not, as long as the previous action has not been finally disposed of. It is the subsequent action that is in abuse of the process of the court”. PER WALTER SAMUEL NKANU ONNOGHEN, JSC

“For the doctrine of severance to apply, there must be clear and distinctive compartmentalization or separation of criminal allegations from those which are civil in nature. In other words, while in the civil atmosphere there should be no allusion to criminal assertions, so does it also apply to civil assertions. The two cannot be interwoven or criss-crossing.” Per Ogunbiyi, J.S.C

“An appellant is entitled to file more than one notice of appeal within the time prescribed for so doing by the rules of court. But whenever there are more than one notices of appeal and all the said notices were filed within the time so prescribed, the appellant cannot use or rely upon more than just one of the notices of appeal to argue the appeal. He must choose which of them he intends to rely upon.” PER ARIWOOLA, JSC

ELECTION MATTERS: The regular courts have no jurisdiction to entertain post –election matters.

Jurisdiction of courts :What determines same; what a court need to consider before assuming jurisdiction.

“Undue return” and “wrongful substitution” of candidates :the difference between the two.

“We need to strengthen the confidence of our people in our democratic process which must begin from within the political parties themselves and at the grassroot government. We must learn to always do the right thing no matter what, else we will fail in the process”

Per- Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen , JSC.

“There is no provision in any electoral laws for the substitution of candidates after an election .It is sheer political recklessness for a party to change its candidate after an election or to deprive a winning candidate of the Certificate of Return. Such an act in my view shows lack of understanding of the democratic system .The partisan role often played by the by Independent Electoral Commission shall continue to raise an eyebrow… It is the constitutional role of and primary responsibility of any Independent Electoral Commission to conduct an election, and therefore has a duty to defend any election it conducted. As an impartial body in the eyes of the law, it must stand by the result of the election no matter the circumstance”